"NBA players are about to jump overseas, and not just Deron Williams. Lots of them. Maybe all of them. Amar'e Stoudemire is thinking about it. Kobe Bryant won't rule it out. Dwight Howard. Dwyane Wade. More. Lots more.

That's the story, and it reminds me of another story, a story I heard when I myself was a small boy -- a story about another boy. A kid who cried wolf.

A liar.

That's what this story makes me think. It makes me think NBA players are lying, and worse -- they think we're dumb enough to believe them.

Deron Williams? Him, I believe. That cat is just far enough out there -- young, intellectually curious, adventuresome and independent -- to go through with his one-year deal to play in Turkey during the NBA lockout. Plus he signed the actual contract, and while I'm sure his agent inserted multiple ways to get out of that contract regardless of the labor status, Deron Williams deserves to be taken seriously.

Tony Parker? Sure, I can see him playing in France. For one, he's French. For another, he's part-owner of a team in France. I can see Tony Parker playing for himself, just as I can see international NBA players like Serge Ibaka, Jose Juan Barea and Andrei Kirilenko returning to their home countries to play.

What I can't see is Dwight Howard packing up his stuff, saying goodbye to his posse and getting on a plane to play in a country where they don't speak his language, don't offer his food and won't kiss his ass like we'll kiss it here in the States. This is a guy so sensitive -- so needy -- that he actually thinks the fawning Orlando media is trying to push him out of town.

This is a delusional person, is my point. And a liar. Don't tell me you've forgotten that Howard vowed in May to stay in Orlando, and then in June was vowing 180 degrees the other way, to become a free agent after the 2012 season. And now in July, Howard is vowing that he's open to playing overseas. I can't wait for August, when Howard vows to play Daddy Warbucks in Annie. "